He Picked the Wrong Wife to Sacrifice for His Sister novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Paid in Full
Lena's POV
Quinn came back that evening with a folded sheet of jail paper and a look on his face I couldn't read.
"Laney says to read it before tomorrow night," he said. "She says only you."
I read it standing at the kitchen counter, with the baby asleep in the bassinet in the next room.
It was two pages in a round, shaky hand. The last paragraph said:
"Ask Papa about page twelve of Mama's file. The foundation safe is in his study, and he has the key. Everything she's ever paid for is in there."
I folded it back up and put it in the drawer with the dish towels.
"She sounds sorry," I said.
"She does."
"Do you believe her?"
"I believe she'd like to be." He rubbed his jaw with his left hand. "That's more than the rest of them."
I went to the table and picked up a white envelope I'd been saving since the morning.
"I have something for you too."
I put it in his lap.
He opened it, and he read the top line, and his face changed.
"This is my hospital statement."
"It's a receipt. It says paid in full. Sixty-one thousand, four hundred dollars."
"Lena."
"The court unfroze the joint account on Monday. My half is mine. I called the billing office this morning and paid it."
He looked at the paper for a long time without speaking.
Then he set it on the table and pushed it back toward me with two fingers.
"No."
"It's already done."
"Then undo it."
"I can't. It's paid."
"You said no tallies." His voice was very quiet. "In the van, after the church. You said nothing between us gets repaid."
"That's not repaying. That's helping."
"It's a tally with a smile on it." He leaned forward in the wheelchair. "Say it again, Lena. Nothing between us gets repaid. Not the chicken, not the church. That was the deal."
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